YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki is grateful for the four and a half
months of maternity leave Google provides its employees, but says
it's a problem that most other American mothers don't enjoy the
same luxury.

In
an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Google's 16th employee
(and first to go on maternity leave) makes
the case that the US should follow the lead of every other
country in the developed world and offer new mothers paid
maternity-leave benefits, funded by social-security programs, as
a matter of law.

"Support for motherhood shouldn’t be a matter of luck; it should
be a matter of course," she
writes. "Paid maternity leave is good for mothers, families
and business. America should have the good sense to join nearly
every other country in providing it."

Plus, she maintains, women who return to the workforce after a
lengthy maternity leave are better able to contribute than they
were before their departure.

"Best of all, mothers come back to the workforce with new
insights," Wojcicki
writes. "I know from experience that being a mother gave me a
broader sense of purpose, more compassion and a better ability to
prioritize and get things done efficiently."

Meanwhile, Wojcicki says that women who do not work at big,
generous tech companies, and particularly those in low-wage jobs,
cannot afford to take the unpaid time off they are entitled to
under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. As a result,
mothers can be forced into returning to work too early, a
decision that can hurt their own health as well as that of their
newborn children.

"A quarter of all women in the U.S. return to work fewer than 10
days after giving birth, leaving them less time to bond with
their children, making breast-feeding more difficult and
increasing their risk of postpartum depression," Wojcicki
writes in the WSJ.

The topic of motherhood and the workplace has been a hot one in
Silicon Valley this year, as the tech world continues its
conversation about how to improve the
relative lack of diversity — gender and otherwise
— in its offices and executive suites.

In her op-ed, Wojcicki seems to be saying that with appropriate
policies from private employers and the federal government, women
won't have to choose between putting their careers on hold and
taking care of their children during the children's time of
greatest need.